Friday, October 23, 2015

Friends (1971) & Paul and Michelle (1974)

A teen-romance drama made
in England, Friends is perhaps best
known for its soundtrack, because Friends
was the first movie for which pop star Elton John (and his perennial lyricist,
Bernie Taupin) created a song score. The tunes aren’t especially memorable, but
the melodic title number has the piano-driven intimacy of John’s early albums.
As for the movie, it’s interesting if unremarkable. Directed by the versatile
Lewis Gilbert, who also generated the original story, Friends depicts first love as a transformative experience. The
young protagonists leave all traces of the adult world’s cynicism and
disappointment behind while they create a private universe of companionship,
affection, and, eventually, passion. Just as the characters idealize their own
lives, Gilbert idealizes the characters, casting attractive young people with
marginal acting skills because they make a pretty picture when photographed
together. Accordingly, there’s an unavoidable veneer of superficiality to the
whole enterprise, as well as a certain leering quality whenever Gilbert lingers
on topless shots of his youthful leading lady.

Set in France, Friends introduces viewers to
14-year-old Michelle Latour (Anicée Alvina) and 15-year-old Paul Harrison (Sean
Bury). She’s an innocent dreamer ready for adventure, and he’s the spoiled son
of a British businessman. Before long, they become friends and run away
together to the French countryside, where they take up housekeeping in a small
cottage. Paul gets work so they can pay bills, and the friends become lovers,
resulting in a pregnancy. Meanwhile, investigators hired by Paul’s father track
down the runaways. That’s about it for the plot,
and if it seems as if the story lacks the conflict necessary for dramatic
momentum, you’ve guessed correctly. Friends
coasts by on glossy surfaces and musical montage sequences and romantic
interludes. The movie is pleasant to watch, with a few lyrical passages, but
the lack of narrative substance results in tedium, no matter how
sweetly John sings on the soundtrack. Still, it’s easy to imagine people succumbing to the film’s slight charms, and Friends
notched a Golden Globe nomination in the now-defunct category of Best
English-Language Foreign Film.

Unwilling to leave well enough alone, Gilbert
and the original actors reunited for a sequel three years later. Without giving
away the ending of the first picture, suffice to say that Michelle and Paul
begin the sequel having not seen each other in three years. Despite objections
from his father, Paul tracks Michelle down, only to learn that she’s living
with a handsome and sensitive American pilot named Gary (Kier Dullea), who is
almost 30. Nonetheless, Gary knows all about Paul—in fact, Gary’s helping to
raise Paul’s child—so Gary does not object when Michelle says she wants to give
her romance with Paul another try. Then it’s back to the same cottage from the
first film, at which point Gilbert weaves between flashbacks and new scenes in
which Michelle and Paul grapple with grown-up issues of careers, economics, and
time management. The sequel has a bit more edge than the first picture, simply
because the presence of romantic rivals creates problems, but the limitations
of the actors (particularly Alvina) become even more evident the second time
around.

On the plus side, Alvina is lovely to behold in both films, and
the respect with which Gilbert treats his characters’ unique relationship
guides his storytelling choices, so both pictures are tender and
thoughtful. Oddly enough, the ending of Paul
and Michelle demands a sequel even more strongly than the ending of Friends did, though a third film never
materialized.